National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA, often pronounced "N-C-Double-A") is a voluntary association of about 1,200 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many Colleges and universities in the United States and potentially beginning in 2008, Canadian universities. Its headquarters are located in Indianapolis, Indianapolis, and it is currently under the leadership of president Myles Brand. The NCAA is the largest collegiate athletic organization in the world, and because of the great popularity of college sports among spectators in the United States, it is far more prominent than most national college sports bodies in other countries.

In August 1973, the current three-division setup of Division I, Division I, and Division I was adopted by the NCAA membership in a special convention. Under NCAA rules, Division I and Division II schools can offer scholarships to athletes for playing a sport. Division III schools may not offer any athletic scholarships. Generally, larger schools compete in Division I and smaller schools in II and III. Division I football was further divided into I-A and I-AA in 1978. Subsequently the term "Division I-AAA" was added to delineate Division I schools which do not field a football program at all. In 2006, Divisions I-A and I-AA were respectively renamed the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).

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History

Its predecessor, the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS), was established on March 31, 1906 to set rules for amateur sports in the United States. When then-president Theodore Roosevelt's own son, Ted, broke his collar bone playing football at Harvard, Roosevelt became aware of the growing number of serious injuries and deaths occurring in collegiate football. He brought the presidents of the three major Ivy League universities, Harvard, Yale and Princeton to several meetings at the White House in October, 1905, to discuss steps to make college athletics safer. The IAAUS was created as one of the outcomes of those meetings. The IAAUS became the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 1910.

Until the 1980s, the association did not offer women's athletics. Instead an organization named the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women governed women's collegiate sports in the United States. By 1982 however, all divisions of the NCAA offered national championship events for women's athletics and most members of the AIAW joined the NCAA.

The NCAA was headquartered in the Kansas City metropolitan area from 1951 until 1999 when it moved from its last Kansas City area location at Overland Park, Kansas to a four-story, facility on the west edge of downtown Indianapolis. Adjacent to the headquarters is the NCAA Hall of Champions.

During its days in Kansas City, Municipal Auditorium (Kansas City) hosted nine Final Four basketball tournaments -- the most of any venue.

Football television controversy

By the 1980s, televised college football was a significant source of income for the NCAA. Had the television contracts the NCAA had with ABC, CBS, and ESPN remained in effect for the 1984 season, they would have generated US$73.6 million for the Association and its members. In September 1981, the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma and the University of Georgia Athletic Association filed suit against the NCAA in district court in Oklahoma. The plaintiffs stated that the NCAA's football television plan constituted price fixing, output restraints, boycott, and monopolizing, all of which were illegal under the Sherman Act. The NCAA argued that its pro-competitive and non-commercial justifications for the plan—-protection of live gate, maintenance of competitive balance among NCAA member institutions and creation of a more attractive "product" to compete with other forms of entertainment—-combined to make the plan reasonable. In September 1982, the district court found in favor of the plaintiffs, ruling that the plan violated antitrust laws. It enjoined the Association from enforcing the contract.

Structure

The NCAA's legislative structure is broken down into cabinets and committees, consisting of various representatives of its member schools. These may be broken down further into sub-committees. Legislation is then passed on to the Management Council, which oversees all the cabinets and committees, and also includes representatives from the schools, such as athletic directors and faculty advisors. Management Council legislation goes on to the Board of Directors, which consists of school presidents, for final approval.

The NCAA staff itself provides support, acting as guides, liaison, research and public and media relations. The current NCAA president is Myles Brand, former president of Indianapolis.

Presently, UCLA, Stanford and Southern California have the most NCAA championships; UCLA holds the most, winning a combined 103 team championships in men's and women's sports.

The NCAA currently awards 87 national championships yearly; 44 women's, 40 men's, and three coed championships where men and women compete together (Fencing, Rifle, and Skiing). For every NCAA sanctioned sport other than Division I FBS football, the NCAA awards wooden trophies with gold, silver, and bronze plating for the first, second, and third place teams respectively; similar to the Olympics. In the case of the NCAA basketball tournaments, both semifinalists who did not make the championship game receive bronze plated trophies for third place (prior to 1982 the teams played a "consolation" game to determine third place). Similar trophies are awarded to both semifinalists in the NCAA football tournaments (which are conducted in Division I FCS and both lower divisions), which have never had a third-place game. Winning teams maintain permanent possession of these trophies unless it is later found that they were won via serious rules violations. Starting with the 2001 season, and later in 2008, the trophies were given an extensive facelift. Starting in the 2007 basketball season, teams that make the Final Four in the Division I tournament receive bronze plated "regional championship" trophies upon winning their Regional Championship. The teams that make the National Championship game receive an additional trophy that is gold plated for the winner and silver plated for the runner-up. Starting in the mid-1990s, the National Champions in men's and women's basketball receive a very elaborate trophy sponsored by Siemens with a black marble base and crystal "neck" with a removable crystal basketball following the presentation of the standard NCAA Championship trophy.

Football Bowl Subdivision

The NCAA does not hold a championship tournament for Division I FBS football, which has caused controversy. In the past, the "national championship" went to teams that placed first in any of a number of season-ending media polls, most notable the AP Poll of writers and the Coaches Poll. Currently, the Bowl Championship Series—an association of the conferences who compete in Division I FBS and four Bowl games—has arranged to place the top two teams (based on a formula blending human polls, computer rankings, and, in some years, other factors) into a national title game. The winner of the BCS title game must be ranked first in the final Coaches' Poll and receives the ADT Trophy; since the NCAA awards no national championship for Division I FBS football, this trophy does not say NCAA as all other college sports national championship trophies do. The AP and other organizations are still free to name as national champions other teams than the one that won the BCS championship.

Media

The NCAA has current media rights contracts with CBS, CBS, ESPN, and ESPN for coverage of its 88 championships. According to the official NCAA website, ESPN and its associated networks have rights to 21 championships and CBS to 67. The following are the most prominent championships and rightsholders:

Westwood One has exclusive radio rights to the men's and women's basketball Final Fours to the men's College (baseball). DirecTV has an exclusive package expanding CBS' coverage of the men's basketball tournament.

Video games based on popular NCAA sports such as football and basketball are licensed by Electronic Arts.

Most NCAA events are also available online either through its own site (as in March Madness on Demand) or from ESPN360.com.

On or about March 1, 2008, the NCAA launched its revamped website with the address NCAA.com, changed from NCAASports.com. The site offers streamlined navigation and a quick reference to many popular links at the bottom of each page.

Rules violations

Member schools pledge to follow the rules promulgated by the NCAA. Creation of a mechanism to enforce the NCAA's legislation occurred in 1952 after careful consideration by the membership.

Allegations of rules violations are referred to the NCAA's investigative staff. A preliminary investigation is initiated to determine if an official inquiry is warranted and to categorize any resultant violations as secondary or major. If several violations are found, the NCAA may determine that the school as a whole has exhibited a "lack of institutional control." The institution involved is notified promptly and may appear in its own behalf before the NCAA Committee on Infractions.

Findings of the Committee on Infractions and the resultant sanctions in major cases are reported to the institution. Sanctions will generally include having the institution placed on "probation" for a period of time, in addition to other penalties. The institution may appeal the findings or sanctions to an appeals committee. After considering written reports and oral presentations by representatives of the Committee on Infractions and the institution, the committee acts on the appeal. Action may include accepting the infractions committee's findings and penalty, altering either, or making its own findings and imposing an appropriate penalty.

Institutions violating the probationary period may be subject to being banned from participating in the sport in question for up to two years, a penalty known as the Death penalty (NCAA).

Division I-A institutions on probation

The following Division I-A institutions are currently on probation by the NCAA in one or more sports: